This is a bit of an old story, but it’s worth highlighting. Back in March Jit Siratranont, a former Thailand MP who is now the secretary general of the Thai chamber of commerce made a speech in which he described Tesco’s expansion into the country as aggressive. He erroneously said that the firm made 37% of its income from the country but also urged conciliation between Tesco and small retailers to head off the prospect of riots over the store’s rapid incursion into the country.

Separately, Kamol Kamoltrakul, an academic, wrote an article in Bangkokbiznews which was also critical of Tesco’s aggressive expansion into the country and which repeated the erroneous 37% figure.

Tesco – who don’t want to be seen as being aggressive at all – immediately launched a legal claim against Siratranont demanding £16 million.

The action has sparked criticism from British campaigners accusing the giant supermarket of being heavy-handed. Claire Melamed, at poverty campaign group ActionAid, said: ‘It is worrying that, rather then enter into a dialogue with campaigners over the effects of its expansion, it seems Tesco would sooner just slap them with a lawsuit.’

It also appears that if their critics make any factual errors whatsoever, Tesco are more interested in pricing their critics out of the debate rather than seeking a simple correction.

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